Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans Louisiana
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Re: External and internal raw water strainer?
Personally I can't stand external strainers. With internal strainers they are completely redundant, and frankly cause more problems than they are worth. They commonly geting fouled, are commonly installed the wrong way, and frankly provide minimal protection. Added to the the fact that they can't be cleaned without getting in the water makes them a poor choice.
You also generally need a much larger hole in the boat to ensure proper water flow with an external strainer than you need without one because of the flow restriction from the screen. Most applications come with a specced size of hole in order to allow enough water flow, external screens provide a significant amount of resistance because of the minimal surface area of the screen. Compare that to the surface area of an internal strainer and you can see the issue.